Royal Caribbean’s big ship Oasis of the Seas will be arriving in Southampton tomorrow (15/10/2014) prior to departing on a transatlantic voyage to Florida. She has just finished a short program of short cruises out of Barcelona, intended to whet Europe’s appetite for cruising on these meg-ships. There are currently two of them, Oasis and Allure, and there will be another two in a few years’ time, so they have to find passengers to fill them. And of course they also have their new Quantum class ships soon – smaller than the Oasis class, but still very big.

I had intended to be in Southampton tomorrow to see Oasis arrive, but in the event I’ve not been able to make the trip. However, Andrew Sassoli-Walker will be there and he has said that if he can get some good shots he will send some to me to feature in the blog. I don’t know when I’ll receive them but I am in fact away on a work trip tomorrow – that’s why I couldn’t get to Southampton – and it will be later in the week before I will be able to publish them. Given that the photos will be Andrew’s rather than mine, I’m sure they’ll be well worth it.

Oasis of the Seas is currently (2100hrs) out in the North Sea, between the Dutch coast and Harwich, and AIS has her expected into Southampton at 06:30. Southampton VTS Cruise Schedule has her arriving at 09:45, so there’s a bit of disagreement there. At least the weather tomorrow morning looks as if it will be dry in Southampton – I still remember the morning I saw Royal Princess arrive, in driving rain, and got very wet for my troubles. (Andrew’s pictures, taken the same day, were much better than mine.)